Lightning damage slowing outage restorations

07/18/2014

News

The map above shows all the lightning strikes during last night’s storms.

Because of the high number of lightning strikes during last night storm, which damaged a great deal of equipment, some CPS Energy customers will likely not have their power restored until Saturday morning.

Equipment that normally could be repaired must be replaced, which is slowing down restoration times. As equipment is replaced and/or repaired, it’s bringing on an average of 50 to 200 customers at a time, even though all available CPS Energy work crews, plus contractor crews, are working to restore power.

Currently, 150 CPS Energy employees and 60 contractors are working throughout the service area, and will continue to work through the night working to restore power to the roughly 3,000 customers still without service due to the high winds, heavy rain and severe lightning that resulted in multiple downed power lines and utility pole damage overnight.